WestPoint looks to new emergence date

WESTPOINT,Ga.— WestPoint Stevens will likely file a new plan of reorganization this week now that an investor group led by W.L. Ross & Co. has stepped forward with an offer to buy the operation.

In announcing the sale last week, WestPoint and Ross set a finalization date of July 31. But chances are that WestPoint will be out of Chapter 11 and the deal put to bed much sooner, said Lorraine Miller, WestPoint senior vice president of finance.

"We hope to be out well before that, by the end of the second quarter," or the end of June, she said.

Once the new plan is filed, the bankruptcy court would set a date for an auction. Ross previously acquired Burlington Industries out of bankruptcy through auction.

WestPoint’s original reorganization plan, filed in January, projected emergence from Chapter 11 in late March.